Big Society and Sector Challenges - by Jonathan Lewis

This comment piece first appeared in Charity Times.

It can be easy to get caught up in interpreting the meaning of the “Big Society”. However, instead of focussing on semantics we should be looking at how the sector can respond to the real-world challenges ahead. If we consider Big Society as a vision of a thriving civil society with greater involvement of charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations in mainstream British life, this has to be a good thing.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) are facing difficult times, with funding pots becoming scarcer and contracts less secure. While there is no denying that the unavoidable spending cuts ahead present significant challenges, there are also some opportunities among the gloom...

There is a temptation, when money is tight, for organisations to entrench, but to make most of the opportunities ahead now is the time they need to call on their characteristic innovation and invention in diversifying sources of income.  Innovative new financial models such as the Social Impact Bond and the creation of the Big Society Bank, should, if implemented effectively and designed in consultation with the sector, offer new ways to access capital.

Another important source of funding is through contracts, of which public sector contracts is just one type. The sector’s diversity is one of its great strengths and while not all organisations will want to get involved with public service delivery many already do, or would like to. The risk is that while some more imaginative commissioners might have been willing to contract with sector organisations during the good times – when they are scaling back authorities may look to the larger public and private sectors as safe and reliable providers of big bulk contracts of core services. Engaging with small local organisations can often seem to take too much time and increase costs.

With many smaller contracts disappearing, CSOs will best weather the storms ahead if they organise themselves and demonstrate that they can deliver better services for less, to have a chance at securing the larger contracts that are still available.

An emerging solution is when CSOs group together and form consortia. By working together they can compete against the bigger players, pooling resources and expertise to successfully bid for, win and deliver public service contracts. We’ve seen this solution work on the national level – empowering a group of sector organisations to win the biggest contract of the DWP’s Futurejobs programme – and on the local level delivering health and fitness services in Sheffield, like the Sheffield Wellbeing Consortium for example. The time has come to replicate and roll out the model.

Charities all around the country have often shown they can often deliver quality services and good value for less than their private and public sector competitors. In tough economic times it will often be the most hard to reach people and communities that need the most support. Often CSOs will be more adept at reaching these people and best placed to deliver the services that they need. Taken together this makes a strong argument for the financial and social benefits of this element of the Big Society project.

It’s not rocket science, and it’s not new. But what could be new is the scale at which it could happen. Among all the bad news, is the good news that we have a Government with an appetite for encouraging CSOs to become more involved. Pending legislation, such as the long awaited Public Service Reform Bill, is expected to look at ways to create a level playing field when it comes to CSO competing for public sector contracts. Similarly Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley says he aims to create the largest social enterprise sector in the health and social care sector in the world through the transformation of the NHS, offering the chance for CSOs working in health and social care to engage with GP commissioners and become key deliverers in the field.  If the right support is there for the sector we could see a real transformation take place. That’s not to suggest that expanding the sector’s role in providing public services is easy to achieve. It won’t happen spontaneously or without the key ingredients of access to capital and better organisation within the sector – but importantly there is an appetite in government to support that kind of change.

The scale of the challenges that lie ahead may seem daunting, making it even more important that the great work that civil society organisations do isn’t lost in an argument about what terminology is politically fashionable.  But if it organises and innovates I believe the sector can continue to thrive.